


Anecdotes on a Basketball Past

by bob2ff



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M, Gen, Humor, Introspection, Male Friendship, Male-Female Friendship, Multi, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-08
Updated: 2014-04-22
Packaged: 2018-01-18 15:36:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1433728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bob2ff/pseuds/bob2ff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aida Kagetora reflects on a time in his life where everything was simple, and basketball was all he knew and loved.</p><p>Coachverse. My interpretation of the relationship dynamics between the coaches in their youth, from <a href="http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130805165024/kurokonobasuke/images/0/0c/Japanese_national_team.png">this picture</a>.</p><p>Ch. 6 up: Unravelling. They couldn’t stay a team forever. Eventually, they would all drift apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snapshots of a Basketball Past

**Author's Note:**

> If you need help with the nicknames, here’s a reference:
> 
> Aida Kagetora: Tora  
> Genta Takeuchi (Kaijo): Gengen  
> Masako Araki (Yosen): Masa  
> Masaaki Nakatani (Shuutoku): Marbo/Ma-boy  
> Katsunori Harasawa (Touou): Katchan  
> Eiji Shirogane (Rakuzan): Eiji
> 
> First written for BPS' Challenge 65 (Tears).

When Tora looked back at his time in the Japanese National Team, he saw it as a time when he thought he could do anything.

Him, Gengen, Marbo, Katchan and Eiji — starting regulars of one of the fastest rising teams in Japan’s national basketball history. And the thrills of being small forward in a team that talented — Tora could always be sure that his sometimes unexpected plays, his love for uncertain fluidity in motion, would always be understood and picked up by his teammates. They  _got_  each other.

Tora was always a little surprised at how well he got them during basketball. After all, he barely got along with some of them on a normal, non-basketball basis.

There was Katchan, his hair always perfectly coiffed, the epitome of always trying to be cool, sometimes failing. “Stop it,” he would snap at Tora whenever Tora greeted him by purposely mussing his hair. Then he would carefully comb each strand in place, a variety of hair products obtained from his extensive collection in his locker.

“Looks better mussed, anyway,” Tora would say flippantly. Katchan would roll his eyes, and then make passive-aggressive comments about the state of Tora’s  _own_  hair. Tora liked him, though. He had a cool apartment (minibar  _and_  pool table!), and always let Tora sit shotgun in his sports car. And he was always trendy, keeping the team up to date on what the latest basketball fashion trends were.

And then there was Eiji. The guy was an enigma. Sometimes Tora thought he  _couldn’t_  know everything, even if he liked to pretend he did. Tora had once tried to give him a nickname. “What do you think of Shiro-chan? Or Ji-chan? Haha, get it, like Ojii-chan, Grandpa?” he had tried joking with him once.

Eiji had taken one look at him and said calmly. “Aida, you can call me anything you want. Oh, just in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll be reviewing everyone’s training menus with the coach tomorrow.” Point taken, Tora had thought.

So he was the only one to whom Tora had not given a ridiculous nickname. Sometimes Tora thought that was why he never seemed to be fully a part of the team (he had a theory — the more ridiculous the nickname, the closer you got as friends. It was  _true_ , okay?). He was undeniably a good captain though, his sure strategies complementing Tora’s own unpredictability with the basketball.

He got along best with Marbo and Gengen. Marbo was a relaxed, regular guy. Sometimes Tora thought he had fallen into his talent with the basketball by accident, and if he had not been  _so good_  with a basketball, he could have been happier living a regular life. Maybe as a salaryman in a multinational corporation or something (he  _was_  good at English, after all). As it were, Marbo was good-looking enough, and skillful enough, that he was the most popular of the team. And he  _loved_ basketball, just as fiercely as Tora did.

Gengen was just  _funny_  — or rather, liked to think he was. He had started first following Tora around, then Marbo. Then he had assimilated into their group so seamlessly in the natural way he had. People couldn’t help liking him — that was just Gengen.

Tora, Gengen, Marbo, Katchan and Eiji — they might not have gotten along all the time, but in basketball, sometimes Tora thought they were unstoppable. One time, after a devastating loss at the first rounds of a tournament, they had all sat around the locker room, faces buried in their hands.

It had been dead silent in the room, but Tora knew they had all been crying. He knew it the way he knew their basketball play styles. Even Eiji, who had calmly, coldly told them their training had been mediocre that year, and that it was obvious they had to step it up, had said all of it with his hands shaking ever so slightly with the effort not to ball them into fists.

After that one instance, Tora truly believed from then on he could do anything with them by his side.

***

Most guys were a little in love with Masa. How could they not? She was beautiful, rough and unpolished in a confusingly appealing way. And she was  _dangerous_ , which was of course irresistible to young guys in their twenties looking for adventure.

"She’s just  _so cool_ ,” Gengen sighed dreamily, staring into space. Gengen had been smitten ever since Masa had beaten him up for sneaking into the girl’s locker room of the national team’s training center. (She had tried to beat Tora up too, but of course he had been sneaky enough to pin it all on Gengen). Since then, he had alternated between following her around like a lost puppy and trying hard to impress her by being funny.

“She could  _kill_  you,” Tora retorted. “With her  _bare hands_. And then her biker gang would chop you into pieces and toss you into the Sumida River.”

Gengen just sighed. “But she’s just  _so cool_.” He sat up, looking determined. “I’m going to  _marry_ her.”

Tora just rolled his eyes. He had been more than a little irritated about Gengen’s fixation with Masa.  _He_  had been the one to make friends with her first, after all, winking at her when he had watched the Japanese female National team play for the first time. Now,  _that_  was a story for another time, Tora and Masa’s first meeting.

He couldn’t say he hadn’t been expecting it, though, Gengen’s lovestruckness. That was Gengen — always trying hard to please. Undoubtedly, he would fall for the girl that was almost always unimpressed with the world.

Gengen was always on the precipice of trying to chart his own path, while trying to please everyone around him. And he always tried to follow Tora, liking the same things he did. Of course that would apply to Masa as well.

Tora did not  _like_  Masa, not in the way Marbo was convinced he did. “Why are you always following her around, then?” Marbo would ask calmly, during one of their regular pool tournaments at Katchan’s crib.

“ _Because_ , she’s fun to annoy,” Tora would retort, trying hard to be patient. He did not  _like_  Masa. He was still having fun dating around, anyway. He did not want to be tied down, not just yet.

“You mean, you’re a masochist,” Katchan added from where he was busy rearranging his collection of basketball merchandise for the upteenth time. Tora glared. “ _No_  — as if she could hurt  _me_ , anyway. I’m too fast for her.”

Of course, he never told anyone of the one time he had seen Masa with her shield down, that hardened shell around her heart that she thought protected her from the world disintegrating in the face of her tears.

Tora had come by the girl’s locker room, whistling as he decided to ask one of the managers on a date. She  _had_  been sending him signals all week, after all. He had found Masa instead, crouched in a corner, curled up into herself, her shoulders shaking as soft sobs rang out.

She had been livid through her tears, and attacked him with a broom, the nearest hard object in the area. After defending himself, quite unsuccessfully (man, he was going to have a  _ton_  of bruises to explain to Eiji tomorrow) he had promised not to tell anyone and told her he would bring her somewhere fun instead.

Needless to say, whacking baseballs as hard as they could at the batting center had done wonders for Masa’s mood. Well, that and Tora treating her to milkshakes after.

He had never found out why she had been crying, and of course Masa never told him.

But then seeing her like that forged a bond between them that Tora himself did not ever perfectly understand.

***  
“Damn, Marbo wins this round of ‘who has the most fanmail and love letters’ again,” Tora groaned crossly. Then he smirked. “And Gengen loses this round again. Your turn to buy the beers again.” Gengen groaned, face planted into the couch of their training center recreation room.

Marbo sighed. “Please don’t call me Marbo,” he said for what he believed was the 83rd time. Tora ignored him. He smirked at Katchan. “I beat you this time, Katchan.”

Katchan just sniffed. “I wouldn’t call getting more letters from  _your_  type of fans a win. I prefer sophisticated women to airheaded fangirls,” he said loftily.

Just then, Eiji walked in. “I’m afraid we’ll have to cancel our regular bar session tonight,” he announced. “We have a photoshoot with another sports magazine — it’s a spread on the Japanese national basketball teams, both male and female.”

They had all groaned (except for Katchan, who  _loved_  the photoshoots because it gave him an opportunity to boss them around telling them how to look their best).

But then, when the official photoshoot had been over, the photographer had asked if they had wanted a candid one for their own keepsake. Gengen had jumped at the chance.

Tora had dragged Masa in, laughingly telling her that she hung around with them all the time she might as well be part of the team. He always thought she hung around with them because she got along with boys better than she did with girls anyway, aside from her biker gang (who were  _not_ typical girls).

When they had taken it, Gengen had not been able to stop his loud, fake crying in an effort to make Masa laugh. “I just love you guys so much!” he wailed through fake tears. Tora had bonked him on the head, and Masa had rolled her eyes.

But then they had all gone for drinks later on Gengen’s tab, and Tora had looked at all of them. He saw Gengen trying to be smooth with Masa, and Marbo’s gentlemanly response to getting hit on by numerous girls. He saw Katchan preening and suavely flirting with the female bartender in an effort to get free drinks, and Eiji on the phone, hard at work trying to get corporate sponsors for their team even on a Friday night.

And he thought, maybe I  _do_  love these guys enough to cry for them.


	2. One Weird Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tora sometimes feels the 'bro-hood' of being teammates in the Japanese National Men's Basketball team is overrated. At least, he feels it most when he has to help Marbo out, one weird night.

“Tora  — you gotta help me out,” Marbo’s voice sounded weird over the phone. Well, it was either that or Tora’s hearing malfunctioned when he was sleepy.

“It’s 3am in the morning,” Tora said, blankly. His brain wasn’t working well, either.

 “How soon can you get here?” Marbo ignored him. To the point, as always.

“It’s _3am_ in the _morning_ ,” Tora repeated.

“Tora — get here now,” Marbo said, then he hung up. Tora heaved a deep sigh. Sometimes he hated that they were teammates and buddies. Bros and team bonds, and all that crap, came with burdens and obligations.

“What the hell?” now Tora wondered if even his eyes also malfunctioned in the freaking middle of the night. “What _happened_ here?”

Masa was lying face down in the middle of — well, what _used to be_ Marbo’s apartment. The curtains were shredded, and there were bits of crockery everywhere. Something that used to be Marbo’s couch was overturned, stuffing ripped out, ripped cushions all over the place.

Marbo just sighed. “Help me with Masa,” was all he said.

“Is she even _alive_?” Tora muttered, but he helped Marbo carry her onto the only identifiable flat surface in the area, Marbo’s kitchen counter. She lolled over the counter, and curled up to continue sleeping. She looked weirdly angelic asleep, although Tora knew for a _fact_ that was a lie, and he had several bruises to prove it. 

***

“And then, she kissed me,” Marbo said, as he picked up an unidentifiable something that probably used to be a pretty expensive DVD player.

“Wait — she _what_?” Tora’s mind was buzzing, his head was spinning. Yet he had strangely blank thoughts.

He couldn’t think of a coupling that bothered him _more_ than Marbo and Masa together. Well, sure, Marbo was his best bud, but Masa was — Masa. He wasn’t sure why he felt like he was being betrayed when he thought about the two of them getting together. He wasn’t sure if he was bothered more about Marbo getting a girl or if that girl was Masa. Or if he was bothered that _Masa_ was getting together with someone.

 “Well, it was more like she punched me in the mouth,” Marbo said. “With her lips.” He looked like he wasn’t sure whether to be pleased about it or not.

Tora thought, Oh. Well, that sounded more like Masa.

"Let me get this straight," Tora said, frowning as he threw bits of stuffing into rubbish bags. "She randomly calls you, says ‘I’m coming to get you, bastard,’ then suddenly shows up here, piss drunk, with a _katana_?”

 Marbo just sighed, patience wearing thin. “Yes, and then she started, well, all this,” he said, gesturing helplessly at what was left of his apartment.

“And then she _kisses_ you before passing out on the floor?” Tora asked, incredulously. He couldn’t, wouldn’t have believed it if it weren’t _Marbo_ telling the story. The guy couldn’t tell a totally bullshit, ridiculous story to save his life. That was _Tora’s_ specialty.

“All she said was, “Are you even _that_ good of a kisser?” before socking me in the face, with her mouth,” Marbo deadpanned.

Tora stared at Marbo for a long time. Then he glanced at Masa, sleeping peacefully like the counter was the most comfortable bed in the world. 

Then he smirked, pulling out his camera phone. “Blackmail time.” The national team’s official website were going to get an influx of some very _interesting_ pictures.

***

“Aida Kagetora, I am going to _kill you_ ,” a feminine growl rang out during that day’s practice.

Eiji sighed. Just once, he wondered, could he have a normal practice session without any disruptions? Of course, having a team consisting of a group as eclectic as Aida, Takeuchi, Harasawa, _and_ an honourary member like Araki, he should not have been surprised. Well, at least Nakatani was somewhat sane. Most of the time.

Tora was ready for her (holy crap was she holding a _katana_?!), hiding behind Gengen. “Masako-san!” Gengen said, cheerfully as ever and attempting to be suave as always. “May I say you look _Masamazing_ today?”

Masa gripped him by the collar with one hand and tossed him bodily aside. She was about to pounce on Tora like a wildcat, katana wielded, when Marbo grabbed her.

It was like she had been scalded. She twisted out of his grip and immediately backed away, katana dropping from her hand. Her face was starting to turn a funny shade of red.

Eiji stepped in, calm and composed as always. “What’s going on here?”

Masa pointed at Tora, all her vengeance and wrath contained in that one finger. “He ruined my _reputation_! With my biker gang! _And_ my team!”

Tora just sniggered. “ _What_ reputation?” With another growl, she lunged at him barehanded. This time, Katchan grabbed her, with admirable courage, for she knew his weak point. She went for his hair, and both of them proceeded to engage in a weird wrestling match, more interpretive dance than fight.

Eiji was about to say something when Marbo stepped in. “Araki.” She stiffened, and carefully avoided his gaze. “What.”

He extended a hand. “I’m willing to forget last night ever happened if that would make you feel more comfortable.” Tora’s laughter burst out as he rolled around the gym floor, laughing. That was Marbo, through and through.

Marbo always tried to be proper and gentlemanly, but mostly failed because of his total awkwardness among people. It was honestly a good thing he was so good-looking, because no way would his social skills have gotten him anywhere with most girls otherwise. In fact, most girls found it _charming_ , because Marbo was never awkward in an insufferable way. Oddly enough though, he was always at his _most_ awkward around Masa.

Masa flushed bright red, Gengen started choking and spluttering heartbrokenly, Katchan’s eyebrows were raised so high that they disappeared into his perfectly coiffed hair, and Eiji closed his eyes, trying to forget he _captained_ this bunch of idiots. 

With that, she seemed to snap out of whatever uneasiness she had felt around Marbo, and whacked him upside the head. “Are you _trying_ to ruin my reputation further, you idiot?” she demanded. Marbo blinked, confused. 

She sighed and turned to all of them. “One of my biker gang has a crush on Nakatani,” she explained. “She insisted I introduce her to him, I tried to get her wasted to forget about the idiot, then _I_ got wasted instead, and visited Nakatani in his apartment.” She shifted awkwardly. “I _may_ have been a _little_ overprotective of her towards him.”

Marbo stiffened. “ _May_? _A little_?” he muttered. But he eyed Masa’s katana lying innocently near her, and did not pursue the subject. 

Tora did not have that same self-preservation instinct, however. “What about the kiss?” he asked cheekily. Gengen choked a horrified gasp. 

It was a very good thing for Tora looks didn’t kill as she turned a glare on him. “Well, he’s _gotta_ be a good kisser to deserve my friend, hasn’t he?”

Eiji stepped in, fed up. “ _Enough_. Aida, shut up. And Araki, don’t you have practice to go to?”

Masa listened to Eiji — _occasionally_ , when she so deigned to. It looked like she was disoriented enough today to listen to him. Before she left, however, she grabbed her katana, and pulled Tora close by the collar with one hand.

“ _Remove_ those pictures,” she said ominously, katana glinting in her other hand. “ _Or else_.” Point made, she left.

Gengen sighed dreamily. “She’s a _Masa_ ing,”

Marbo hung his head. “She’s _troublesome_.”

Katchan patted his hair primly. “She’s _uncouth_ ,” he said, crossly.

Tora smirked. “She’s _busted_.” Those pictures were staying up for a long, long time.

Eiji just glared at all of them. “Get back to _practice_. Or the ‘drinks and entertainment’ budget will be facing some interesting _changes_ next month. And it _won’t_ be an increase.”


	3. How I Met Your Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first time Aida Kagetora meets the girl who would become his wife, and Riko's mother, he isn't quite sure that he even likes her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for BPS' Challenge 66 (Puns).

"Quick, Gengen!" Tora says, full on sprinting. "We're gonna miss our flight back!"

"Man, Eiji is going to _kill_ us," Gengen moaned as they ran through the airport terminal.

"So worth it, though," Tora laughed loud and hard.

They were in Osaka for an away tournament. As always, Tora had leapt at the opportunity for adventure. And as always, Gengen tagged along. This time, Tora had the brilliant idea to down 5 shots of sake at a bar before competing at a 'who can eat the most takoyaki in 2 minutes' competition.

Marbo, responsible as he was, had flatly refused to go, no matter how much Tora begged him. He would have been useful to have around, by virtue of girls gravitating to them just because he hung out with them (the idiot was just that irritatingly good looking).

And then Katchan had refused on the grounds of the fact that he absolutely detested binge drinking, and hated eating competitions even more. Typical Katchan, with his wanting to 'live the sophisticated gentleman's lifestyle' and his 'eating and drinking in style and quality, not substance and quantity.' Tora had made it his new year’s resolution to get him completely, embarrassingly, wasted.

He would have made it his _lifetime_ goal to see Eiji even slightly tipsy, but he knew that would almost never happen. Some things were just not meant to happen in nature.

“I’m gonna call that girl,” Gengen said, determinedly, his breath coming out in short bursts as he ran.

Tora frowned. He wasn’t sure why that bothered him. He _wasn't_ interested in her. The girl wasn’t even _his type_.

***

“49, 50, _51_ _takoyaki_ in two minutes! We have a new record!" The izakayamanager lifted Gengen's arm in the air like he was a boxing champion. Tora threw his chopsticks down. Damn, his own 43 pieces was no match for that.

"Can I interview you?" a girl popped up, getting right into Gengen's face, clipboard in hand.

"Huh?" Gengen said, still a little spaced out from all that ingestion.

"I'm doing my thesis on eating competitions," the girl said, pushing her glasses up on her face. Man, Tora thought,  her glasses weren't even the stylish oversized types people wore for fashion— hers was the kind _smart_ people wore— the functional, practical type.

Gengen straightened up and instantly gave her his best smile. The girl _was_ quite cute, even if she did not have the irresistibly enthralling quality of Masa's looks. She was appealing in an unobtrusive way, the way that you might have overlooked unless you paid some attention to it.

"Sure! What are you studying?" he leaned in charmingly. The girl was oblivious, examining her clipboard. _Definitely_ not Tora's type, even if she _was_ sort of cute. A little too serious,  a little too focused— he preferred the laughing, joking types.

"I'm a final year student at Tokyo University," the girl said, as she led them to a private corner in the bar. "I'm researching how the biochemical reactions of overeating would affect physiology." Then, looking at the lost expressions on their face, she added, "I study nutrition."

Identical expressions of understanding crossed their faces. Tora didn't know what came over him— it was probably a combination of the 5 shots earlier, oversatiation, and the girl's too-serious expression that made him want to disorientate her (the good way). He leaned in, winked, and said. "We're national athletes— we know _all_ about nutrition." Then, he added, "Chemistry, huh? I’ve got my _ion_ you.”

Both Gengen and the girl stared at him. Tora inwardly cringed the moment the words came out. _Man_ , he was normally funnier than that. Then the girl responded, looking like she was trying hard not to laugh. “Sorry, I think we’ll need a little more alcohol to _catalyze_ this reaction.”

Then Gengen laughed, too loudly, to smooth things over. "So, eating competitions, huh? That's cool!" he exclaimed, in a strangled voice.

Tora would later look back at the moment that occurred afterwards as the moment he had probably fallen in love with Riko's mother, and had not even realized it.

Her face immediately lit up at Gengen’s question. A passion infused her features, giving her a vivacity that could rarely be found in all the laughing, bubbly girls Tora normally found hot.

"I know, right? Chemistry is _amazing_ , and its even _more_ amazing in the human body! Did you know that —" she rattled off chemical names and reactions so rapidly all Gengen and Tora could do was nod mutely to keep up.

As they left the bar, she offered them some homemade cookies. "Thanks for helping me out with my data!" She smiled, and passed them her details with the promise to contact them once she had completed her thesis.

When they had tasted the cookies, though, it had taken all of Tora's self control not to throw up the 43 takoyaki he had earlier.

***

"A nutritionist who can't cook? Sounds like a bad joke," Masa sniggered, popping peanuts in her mouth as they relaxed in Katchan's living room, their default hangout spot by virtue of being the nicest, and _cleanest_ , crib.

"Not as bad as the joke Tora made that night," Gengen smirked, sniggering. Tora shoved a hand to Gengen’s face with a muttered "Shut up." Then he added, "She's a total nerd anyway, you should have heard her talk about _chemistry,"_ Tora said in disgust.

"Sounds like she's too smart for you," Katchan said from his focused savouring of his wine. Masa laughed out loud.

"I like her," Gengen announced. Tora felt the pang of irritation again. What was _wrong_ with him? Gengen _always_ ended up liking the same things he did, be it girls or otherwise.

So shouldn’t it have been great that at least this time, Gengen was finally interested in a girl he was distinctly _not_ interested in?

***

Much later, Masa caught up to Tora. "She's too good for you," she had said, bluntly. But then she added, "You should call her."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Tora said flippantly, indifferently. Sometimes he really didn’t get Masa.

There were times when she made him wonder if she wanted him to pursue her, sometimes flirting, sometimes showing him the vulnerable side of her that she never showed anybody else. And then other times she would insist she knew him best, yet treat him like a pseudo-enemy, pseudo-friend in her violence, distancing herself from him like she normally did from the rest of the world. She confused Tora, which annoyed him like hell, in a way no woman ever did. He didn't fully understand what that _something_ was, anyway, that drew him and Masa together. So he ignored it, as Masa religiously did, too.

Tora _wasn't_ interested in that girl, and he did not want to _like_ Masa. Yet, he found himself comparing the two women, his best female friend who he still wasn't sure he felt anything more for, and a girl he had just met who he was definitely _not_ interested in but somehow couldn't stop thinking about. He wondered how they could be so different, yet so similar.

Masa wielded her katana like the lethal weapon it was, but Tora privately thought it hid something much gentler. She used it as a shield, protecting her vulnerabilities from the world, its deadliness a cover against actual pain. She was prickly, like a sea urchin— notoriously hard to get to know. But she and Tora _got_ each other, even if she didn’t like to think _he_ understood her. In some ways Tora sometimes felt they belonged together, even if she liked to think she only belonged with herself.

And then Tora had looked at the Girl (Tora absolutely _refused_ to call her by name— he _wasn't_ interested in her, damnit), and discovered something entirely different. She had talked all night about chemistry, and Tora had never experienced a conversation he understood _nothing_ about until he had listened to her that night.

He didn't get how the Girl could love _chemistry_ of all things so fiercely, a subject so foreign (so _boring_ ) and far apart from what he was used to, a subject so _different_ from basketball. But then her love had been so deep, so obvious, that in some ways he felt he had understood her down to her very soul. Because she loved chemistry the same way he loved basketball.

She had been too serious, different from Masa’s snarky playfulness. Yet she had an unexpected sweetness that resonated, so contrasting from Masa’s harshness towards the world.

Masa and the Girl, so different in temperament and so different in their looks. Yet they both loved so fiercely it was magnetizing. Masa _loved_ basketball, and the Girl _loved_ chemistry, in ways that were so alike for subjects that were so different. And Tora in turn was fascinated by the Girl’s love for something he found so far removed from basketball, yet could result in him _connecting_ so strongly to that fierce, unyielding love.

But Tora couldn't help himself. Before he could pursue another girl, he had to try something, anything. He smiled softly at Masa, moving her hair away from her face in an uncharacteristically gentle gesture. "She reminds me of you in some ways, you know," he murmured, voice low in a way he had never used with Masa. His fingertips lingered on her face, just a second too long.

Masa just smirked. "Then she's _definitely_ too good for you,” she said.

She smiled at him, one of her rarer, sweeter, smiles. "Stop being a tsundere and call her, idiot," she finally said, stepping away from him.

So Tora did. And that was how he met Riko's mother.

 


	4. Precipice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The one time Masa and Tora almost crossed the precipice beyond the boundaries of friendship, they had both been rip-roaringly wasted.

“Marbo is _finally_ not first! _Yes_!” Tora leapt, punching the air. Gengen added, “Eiji beat him, though. No surprises there — if anyone could beat Marbo, it would be him.

Tora just rolled his eyes. “Whatever. This time _I’m_ buying everyone drinks. I know it’s your turn since you lost again, Gengen, but we need to celebrate Marbo finally getting frigging _second_ on ‘who has most fanmail and love letters’ this week.” He added emphatically, “Like _really_ celebrate.”

Marbo stretched, yawning from where he was lying on the couch. “You know what, I _really_ don’t care about the stupid competition you made up, Tora. As long as I get free drinks, I’m in.”

Katchan just said flatly, “I am _not_ getting drunk. You guys can act like the idiots you normally do, and I will be making conversation with the most sophisticated lady in the bar.”

Tora cheered. “Katchan can just be boring all by himself! I’m gonna call Masa and we can go. Gengen, grab Eiji.”

Ignoring Gengen’s protest about ‘why can’t _he_ be the one to call Masa’, he got her with the magic words: Drinks on me.

***

Even somewhere between his 8th or 9th shot of sake, Tora had somehow managed to keep track of where everyone was. He attributed it to his _excellent_ teamplay — Eiji would have been proud.

He knew Eiji had left early, citing meetings with corporate sponsors. And then Katchan was holed up in the corner with a beautiful woman, in deep conversation as though he had not had a drop of alcohol all night. Gengen was lying face down in the couch, snoring loudly, while the izakaya manager futilely tried to revive him.

Marbo had not had as much as Tora, but the guy was a lightweight and was now trying to fend off the advances of girls as gentlemanly as possible. He was having a hard time standing upright. Well, eventually he would run away yelling from them and hide in the restroom — that tended to happen.

And Masa— her arm draped around his shoulders as she leaned on him heavily for support, yelling in his face, breath smelling like sake, “ _Say_ it, idiot! I’m a better slam dunker than you!”

Tora laughed in her face. He yelled back, “You can’t even _high five_ me properly, and you think you have the height to dunk?” Masa glared at him, and grabbed a chopstick, pointing it at his face like a lethal weapon. “We are going _right now_ for a one-on-one, bastard!”

So they stumbled out of the izakaya, supporting each other heavily, to the nearest outdoor court. The manager had tried his level best to get them to go into the taxi he had called for the others, but Masa had brandished the chopstick threateningly and he backed off. He had even given her the other chopstick, to make a complete pair.

And Tora and Masa had faced off in the middle of the court. The streetlight shone its lonely beam, and it was a beautifully clear summer’s night.

Tora had grabbed the ball first, but then Masa pounced on him, disregarding all rules. She clawed at him until she got the ball, and then proceeded to dunk it. Or rather, she would have if she had been able to run properly. As it were, she performed a rather epic fail as she ran to jump but tripped and fell instead.

Tora had rolled around the courts, laughing, before going to see if she was okay. She had grabbed him and tried to choke him, and they had an impromptu wrestling match. Eventually he had been forced to say Masa was the best basketball player he had ever known, and that he _sucked_ , as she held him in a chokehold.

They sobered up at least half way sometime after they both had tired out, lying side by side on the court, gazing at the sky. Somewhere between the hazy state of half-sober half-inebriated, Tora gave into impulse. He moved to hover over her, leaning close. She placed an arm over his neck, bringing him closer. It felt warm. Masa herself looked like she didn’t quite know what she was doing as she stared at him.

Dimly, at the back of his mind, Tora knew that his completely sober self was telling him that crossing the boundary he and Masa had so thoroughly drawn through their ignorance of anything more than friendship between them was a bad idea. He wasn’t thinking straight, he was drunk, _she_ was drunk, these were rational thoughts that ordinarily would have stopped him from trying to step over the precipice of that _something_ between them, whatever it was (friendship or otherwise).

Tora knew that they always had a strong but pretty weird bond, something he never really understood. But Tora and Masa never went beyond friendship. It was just an unacknowledged given. They were so precariously balanced in their forced ignorance of anything more. It would be a terrible idea to tip them over that balance into what lay beyond. It would have ruined everything between them, even that weird sort-of friendship sort-of _more_ they had. If they ruined _that_ , who was he going to tease mercilessly? Who was going to tease _their_ _friends_ mercilessly with him? Who could he always count on to share his ruthlessly playful sense of humour?

But she had been _right there_ , so close, dark eyes peering at him, mouth set in that typical Masa half-smirk. So Tora had not been able to help himself. He leaned in, breath ghosting gently over her lips. He was almost positive that she had started to lean in too, eyes starting to close.

And he _missed_. He had moved to kiss her on the lips, and got the corner of her mouth instead. Looks like he was still a little drunk.

After the sort-of-not-really kiss, he pulled back to stare at her. She started laughing uncontrollably, so he did too. He collapsed over her, propped up on his elbows, laughing along with her.

When they had both laughed their guts out, he had still been so close, hovering over her. They had fallen silent, staring at each other again. After what seemed like the longest time, Masa pushed him away and bonked him on the head, hard.

“No wonder you never get girls,” she had said, smirking. “You can’t even kiss them right.”

Tora rubbed his head, and frowned at her. “I’m _great_ with girls! You don’t even know…” he trailed off as he peered at her, closer.

She was smiling, but not a Masa smirk kind of smile. It was slightly sad, slightly wistful. She stood up. “Let’s go back,” she had said, and turned her back towards him, walking away. She didn’t turn back to see if he was following.

Tora _got_ Masa, even if she liked to think she was the only one who understood herself. And he knew she understood him, too. But Tora always looked back on that time and wondered. He wondered if he really got her at all. After all, it had seemed at that moment that she had not _understood_ him, even though he had tried to make himself understood.

He wondered if Masa realized what responding to him would have entailed for their friendship. It was clear that she had considered it, or at least felt enough to begin responding to him. But something had stopped her. She had been the one to push him away when he would have continued, beyond the precipice. He found it hard to believe that Masa of all people could be scared, a girl so tough and brave, hiding her vulnerabilities under a hardened shield of ruthlessness. But it seemed she had not been brave enough to try anything more than what she already had with Tora. She had, with a sad smile, let any possibility of that happening drift away.     

After that time, there was never any danger of going beyond the precipice. Masa and Tora hung out together alone occasionally when Gengen wasn’t pestering Masa, and when the team wasn’t around.

It had been as usual, Tora teasing Masa, Masa beating on Tora. It had been them as they normally were, whatever that _something_ was, the bond that allowed them to get each other at such a deep level. But that _something_ had changed slightly. It had changed because from that point onwards, there never became a chance of anything more.


	5. Idols

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tora remembers the time when the Japanese national men’s team almost became a pop idol group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for BPS' Challenge 67 (Music).

Katsunori Harasawa, or, Katchan as Tora insisted on calling him, was always nagging the Japanese men’s national team. It was for their own good, that was what he thought.

"Spray some cologne," he would snap at Gengen when he slung a sweaty arm over him after practice.

"Comb your hair," he would urge Tora, eyeing it like his hair personally offended him. "Or better yet, get a hair cut." Yeah, it was likely Tora’s hair  _did_ personally offend him.

Most of the time, however, he was dedicated to the goal of making their team superstars, not content with being mere sports stars. He actually strivedto get them to do ‘famous people things’ (as Gengen called it) besides just playing basketball nationally.

He signed them up for photo shoots with men’s lifestyle magazines, beyond just sports magazines. He urged them to live stylish lifestyles (Tora didn’t even  _know_  what that was even supposed to mean), and lived a slave to the trends himself. If it weren’t for him, they would probably just have been a bunch of sweaty guys who showed up for national tournaments occasionally, and played basketball recreationally the rest of the time. As it were, his efforts got them to go beyond sports stars and talented basketball players— they became  _celebrities_.

As for Eiji, he allowed Katchan’s remonstrations, annoying as they were. Anything to get them more team sponsors, that was the way to Eiji’s heart.

This time, however, Tora felt Katchan had gone too far.

“ _Singing_?!” Tora gaped incredulously at him. “I can’t sing!” he continued in a strangled voice.

"All the idols are getting into music. It’s the quadruple conqueror effect— singing, dancing, acting and modeling," Katchan explained patiently, like he was talking to a child. He tended to talk like that to Tora.

"But we’re  _national_   _basketball players,_ not idols!” Tora said.

"The music company is promising to sponsor us for the next three tournaments if we just record one single," Eiji stepped in. "If you understand math at all," at that, Tora rolled his eyes at him, "That’s a great deal."

"And," Katchan added, "It will boost our popularity among the young adult female demographic."

Tora looked at Marbo and Gengen helplessly. They stared helplessly back.

As Gengen opened his mouth to protest, Eiji smoothly added, “The female national team is also getting the same deal. They will be there too.”

Gengen instantly cheered, on board with anything that put him within a foot of Masa.

Marbo just shook his head resignedly at Tora. Tora just glared at him. Useless, he thought. He couldn’t count on  _anybody_ around here.

***

"You look like you can rap!" The record executive told Tora.

"No," he said, "I really can’t."

"Well, you  _look_  like the ‘badboy’ of the group, so we’ll present you as the rapper,” the record executive bulldozed over him.

Katchan got the honorary role as lead singer ( _of course_  he was delighted to do it), Marbo as second lead (too good looking to be backup, apparently), and Gengen got shafted to be backup. Eiji, the sneaky bastard, got out of it by bargaining his ‘marketing services’ to market the single, in exchange for not singing at all. Damn, Tora needed negotiating skills.

"It’s all about the  _package_ ,” the record executive insisted. They needed to play the roles their ‘image’ suited best, he said. Tora just didn’t get it. Why couldn’t Marbo the good boy be the rapper instead? But apparently his gentlemanly image was too  _precious_  to waste being anything other than a lead.

Well, at least Tora could relieve some of his frustration watching Masa throw a mighty tantrum over the producer’s efforts to package the girls’ team as a cutesy girl-pop group. She had drawn the line at the cat ears and frilly costumes. And then had pulled out her katana when she was told to be second lead.

Very quickly after that, the Japanese national women’s team had been exempt from the ‘record a single’ requirement,  _and_  had secured sponsorship for their next three games to boot.

Tora’s team wasn’t so lucky. Sometimes he wished they had a katana-wielding maniac like Masa on their team to do their bullying and thuggery for them. As it were, Marbo was completely useless in that respect, and Gengen had been too busy trying to get Masa’s attention to help Tora out of this predicament.

Masa smirked, popping chips in her mouth and chugging a beer as she watched them shuffle uncomfortably into the recording studio.

"You guys should put on a live show before every game," she said seriously. "You’d do great, I’m sure." Katchan the idiot actually looked like he was considering that.

Tora just threw a rude gesture at her direction. She laughed outright.

After the long ordeal, they had listened to the recording together.

"What’s that weird noise in the background?" Gengen puzzled, scratching his head.

"It sounds like a dying animal," Marbo frowned.

"It sounds like a cat decided to yowl along to the sound of nails in a blender," Katchan said, thoroughly annoyed.

"It sounds like Tora during drunken karaoke," Masa said bluntly.

"Idiots, that  _is_  me!” Tora spluttered. “I  _told_ you I was bad at singing!”

Eiji just said, composed, “Well, we’ve done our part. Even if the song is better off not reaching civilization’s ears, the rest is up to the studio. Back to training now.”

And so, the Japanese national men’s team’s budding career as a musical idol group-cum-basketball team died a glorious death after a short, blazing life. The recording studio, after thoroughly erasing Tora’s part out of existence, had released the single to a relatively nonchalant public.

Music critics had called the song ‘a generically pleasing auditory experience,’ and they had made little impact in the music industry. Aside from a slight increase in fan mail that year, nothing much else had changed. Which was probably what Eiji had planned all along. The manipulative bastard never wanted them to get too famous, after all. It would have distracted them from training.

They did, however, gain a loyal cult following out of an oddly niche and specific demographic— zookeepers, who had said their song was a huge hit with the penguins during feeding time. Something about the rhythm improving their appetite, or something.

Eij, the opportunist, of course managed to obtain sponsorship from four national zoos that year. Katchan bemoaned the premature death of their musical career, and then continued in his efforts to ‘educate’ the team on the ways of being sports celebrities.

Tora was just glad his singing was never made public. It was never meant for human ears, after all.


	6. Unravelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They couldn’t stay a team forever. Eventually, they would all drift apart.

Ironically, the first to drift apart were Gengen and Tora. Gengen, who always followed Tora around, was first to leave his life. The two of them, the pair who were _always_ together, during their time in the Japanese National men’s basketball team.

What split them apart was not a fight over a girl, although Tora had always thought that was ultimately would have happened. They were always liking the same girls, after all, and he thought that law of probability would hold true, that eventually there would be _one_ girl to break their friendship apart. Tora thought at one point it would have been his future wife, his current girlfriend. But it wasn’t.

What made them eventually drift away from each other was not a dramatic fight over love, but mundane as anything. _Life_ got in the way. Little moments of when Gengen eventually stopped following Tora on his wild adventures, because he had ‘responsibilities.’ More individual training to do as he got slower with age, more scouting with Eiji for prospective players to replace him in future.

Eventually, Tora just stopped asking him to hang out. He had a serious girlfriend, now, after all, and he could just spend time with her. Gengen could do his stuffy responsibilities on his own.

Next to drift away from Tora was Marbo, the other buddy in their trio. That wasn’t such a surprise, because Marbo and Tora had always been different people, with wildly varying personalities, no matter how much they liked hanging out with each other. And Marbo always had less of Tora’s wild, playful streak.

So when Tora started asking him to hang out, sans Gengen, he didn’t even blink as Marbo regretfully said he had “other commitments to attend to.”

What really drove it home, however, that Marbo and him weren’t buddies the way that they used to be, that something had changed, was one time Marbo _did_ hang out with him. As with most things that become vivid in your memories, it was just a small, insignificant gesture. 

As the most popular player on the team, Marbo constantly contended with fans wherever he went. He always acted like the gentleman, acquiescing to their requests with a resigned but polite smile. He was good at it too— one time, a fangirl had asked him to sign her bra, and he had gallantly done so without even a blink.

But that day, as Tora hung out with Marbo in a bar, a fan had approached him, nervously. And Marvo had _ignored_ her, something he had never done. Tora later found out Marbo had not actually meant to do so— he had just been so tired that day, he had not even realized she had been talking to him. But then it had driven the point home to Tora— they were all getting older, and leaving their fame behind.

At first, Tora had been surprised that the last two people to drift away from him had been Eiji and Katchan. After all, he had hung out with them the least during his time with the team. They had worked well together as teammates, but were never actually _buddies_.

Then he realized he should not have been surprised — it was an entirely natural outcome. Gengen was first to outgrow him, maturing in his priorities before Tora. Marbo always had been mature with a boyish edge, then outgrew his tolerance for Tora.

But Katchan and Eiji had always been the most mature of their team. They did not need to outgrow anyone, because they had been tolerating them all this while. They had just been waiting for Tora to get there, too. Eventually, however, Tora was just too fundamentally different from the two of them.

Katchan, with his aim for the finer things in life, too different from Tora’s own predilection for relaxed casualness. Eiji, always keeping himself at a distance, never letting himself get close to anyone, for reasons Tora could never fathom.

He suspected it was because Eiji always felt to be an effective leader and captain, he could never deign to hang out with them as buddies. It would have compromised his position and ability to make decisions.

And Eiji prized his ability to make decisions, as a leader, above all else. If it meant leaving old friends behind, so be it.

Last but most confusing, and dear, of Tora's old friends to leave him behind was Masa. He couldn't say he hadn't been expecting it, however. Something had changed between them after Tora got a girlfriend.

Tora would have liked to blame the deterioration of their friendship all on Masa. After all, _she_ had been the one distancing herself from him, consciously squirming away every time he slung an arm around her. Holding back her insults initially only in front of Tora's girlfriend, then eventually stopping them completely. 

But Tora knew he bore some of the blame, too. He was the first one to start treating Masa differently after he got a girlfriend, after all. Stopping the snarkily flirty comments he used to rile her up with. Stopping the merciless teasing that used to be his default greeting to her.

It made Tora wonder if what they had all this while had not really been friendship, after all. If so, things would not have changed so drastically between them. But he stubbornly thought it wasn't his fault, not completely. He hadn't been the one to waver, constantly maintaining that exhaustingly ambiguous line between friendship and something more, and then pushing Tora away when he had tried to explore the possibility of something more.

So he let their friendship deteriorate, and threw all his love into his relationship with his girlfriend, instead. He refused to spare any for his friends, if they would not spare any for him.

As their friendships deteriorated, their teamwork remained as wonderful as ever. But a sports career in the national circuit was fundamentally unsustainable, and they all retired, one by one.

Gengen was first, as they all expected. Then Katchan, citing the need to keep his body pristine while he still could, before the wear and tear got permanent as he grew older. Then Tora, his impending marriage keeping him too busy to keep up training with the younger players.

Then Marbo, finally tiring of the fame and his status as the most popular player, wanting the quieter life he always desired. Last was Eiji, which was expected as well. Their captain would never have retired without ensuring he had a worthy successor, that the next captain could continue their legacy satisfactorily.

Without sports to keep them together, without basketball to keep their love unified, Tora's legacy with the Japanese National Men's team died a natural death. Ironically, that death was just a natural part of their lives as a journey.

Tora always felt, however, that eventually their individual love for basketball would bring them all full circle. He believed that eventually, basketball would bring them all back together.

So when he saw each of them, all coaches of a new generation of basketball players, all who loved basketball just as much, or maybe more, than each of them individually did, Tora had smiled. And felt that maybe they could start becoming friends and buddies, once again.

 


End file.
